Diagram showing the damage to United Airlines Flight 232, a DC-10 airplane that crashed in Sioux City, Iowa in July 1989.

Diagram showing the damage to United Airlines Flight 232, a DC-10 airplane that crashed in Sioux City, Iowa in July 1989.

Photo: Iowa Department Of Public Safety

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"Flight 232: A Story of Disaster and Survival," by Laurence Gonzales

"Flight 232: A Story of Disaster and Survival," by Laurence Gonzales

Photo: W. W. Norton & Company

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More than 180 people survived the crash of Flight 232 in Sioux City, Iowa, in July 1989.

More than 180 people survived the crash of Flight 232 in Sioux City, Iowa, in July 1989.

Photo: Iowa Department Of Public Safety

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Laurence Gonzales

Laurence Gonzales

Photo: Debbie Gonzales

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'Flight 232,' by Laurence Gonzales

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Flight 232

A Story of Disaster and Survival

By Laurence Gonzales

(Norton; 415 pages; $27.95)

When you dress for a flight, what do you wear? You may want to look nice, or be comfortable, but my guess is you aren't thinking about emergency procedures. Can you climb out of twisted aluminum wreckage in those shoes? Have you protected your skin with fire-resistant natural fibers?

With the two recent Malaysia Airlines tragedies, plane crashes are on our minds these days, but perhaps not to the extent of dressing for disaster. And yet, for many of the passengers on Flight 232, fated to crash in Sioux City, Iowa, in July 1989, what they were wearing and how they braced for the crash dictated the extent of their injuries. That's the unforgettable level of detail that author Laurence Gonzales captures so well in "Flight 232: A Story of Disaster and Survival."

From a pilot's perspective, the crash of United Airlines Flight 232 wasn't a disaster, it was an absolute miracle. Capt. Al Haynes is an aviation god to pilots for his instinctive reaction to the total hydraulic failure on his DC-10. The aircraft was theoretically unflyable in that situation; nobody had ever trained for it, and there were no procedures for such a catastrophe. Haynes responded instantly by using differential power - throttling the right engine back and left engine forward for a right turn, and vice versa, and this is how he and his co-pilots battled to control the crippled jet for nearly 45 minutes.

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They blundered toward Sioux City, which by an odd cascade of previous events was primed to handle all types of huge disasters. The plane was borderline uncontrollable, it was going far too fast, and the runway was ridiculously short for such a large jet. The DC-10 cartwheeled onto the field, breaking into pieces and tossing passengers into the air as the burning wreckage cut into the Iowa cornfields. Emergency teams were already at the airport, watching and waiting.

Gonzales, whose books include "Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why," tells a richly detailed story that is equal parts heartbreaking, inspiring, gruesome and full of fascinating science. Through his masterful reporting we come to know both the survivors and the doomed as the story unfolds. At the same time, Gonzales picks apart the black art of titanium metallurgy and the complex paper trail of aircraft building and maintenance to reveal the cause of the accident.

The heart of the story is Sioux City's spectacularly quick and effective emergency response. Crews arrived at the airport in time to watch the fiery crash, and then assumed there couldn't possibly be any survivors. When firefighters and the National Guard rushed out to the wreckage, they were shocked to see the scattered and bloodied bodies begin to stand and walk, as if zombies had taken over the airport. Ultimately, 184 of the 296 passengers survived, including most of the crew. The majority of the survivors were completely unharmed.

Through the vivid memories of survivors, Gonzales captures the sounds and smells of the disaster, including the gorgeously bright sunlight that spilled into the cabin as it broke apart, the thudding noise of the aircraft's wings hitting cornstalks and the smell of freshly cut grass on that summer day.

These sensory images can be painfully sharp, as when rescue crews arrived on the scene so quickly that the mortally wounded had not yet had time to die. Medical workers struggled to calm passengers with missing limbs and catastrophic head injuries, clearly looming fatalities but with enough life left to ask if they would be OK. Visions of the dead (and the forensics work used to identify their remains) still linger for the survivors, and will haunt readers as well.

Experts from the Go Teams at the National Transportation Safety Board, United Airlines and General Electric knew what caused the crash the moment they saw the No. 2 engine on the ground at the airport. It was obvious that the tail-mounted engine had exploded and its fan blades had cut the aircraft's hydraulic lines. The metallurgists on the team tracked down the cause, and Gonzales carefully traces their path back to problems with titanium manufacturing and the DC-10 design. This is complicated engineering stuff that could have used a few illustrations to clarify the details.

When an airplane falls from the sky, we want answers. And unlike missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, this accident gives them to us: We have the wreckage, eyewitnesses, survivors, radar data and black boxes. Gonzales weaves these artifacts into a vivid and memorable story about one of aviation's worst disasters and brightest miracles.